Mar 19, 2010

I participated in Vivianna's Quiet Nights Art Journal Class that just happens to be ending today. I wasn't the greatest student because I wasn't able to make much time for my journal. Last weekend I finally took a little break from the Vivi Dot grind and hauled out my art supplies. It had been such a long time since I did something creative that wasn't related to Vivi Dot and it was wonderful. I am going to make a point of doing things like this a lot more often! I must step away from the fabric, the buttons, the gluing, etc and take some me time. It gets my creative juices flowing after all which only benefits my business in the end. I have a good number of empty journals made with old book covers that I picked up at the Renegade Craft Fair (they were giving them away at the end of the show). This Norman Rockwell book was a great size and the cover was pretty beat up so I didn't feel as badly covering it up. There are a good number of the original pages from the book inserted in between the blank pages as well so there's still a nod to the book throughout my journal. I pulled out my Xyron Sticker Maker which made this project so easy! No gluing at all, I just passed all of my papers through the sticker maker and slapped them into place. Here's a photo of what it looks like right after I've pushed it through the handy machine. Next I started layering on my big paper pieces with sticker backing. I covered the seams of the brown and blue paper with my newly purchased washi masking tape from Happy Tape. After that I used a Martha Stewart craft punch with tiny little scalloped edges and punched out a bunch of neutral patterns from a Paper Source catalog. I ran those through the sticker maker as well and made a collage at the top of the cover. Here's the finished product: Next up was the inside cover. I ripped up some large pieces of pretty salvaged wrapping paper and layered that over the striped paper.For the next page I layered a bunch of ripped Happy Tape pieces to create a tree trunk, branches, leaves and little pink blooms. I also cut out one of the birds from the same paper to tie this page in with the inside cover. He sits perched at the bottom of the tree. This last page is still a work in progress, but I wanted to share it anyway. I fell in love with this chair from Crate and Barrel so I decided to build a room around it. Home is a place and a concept I love so I plan to add some text to this one to articulate that.I received an amazing delivery of prints from Diana of Our City Lights this week that have me itching to journal some more. Make sure to check her Etsy shop so you can see why I'm so inspired by them. That's all for now. Oh! One more thing... The little birdie on my first journal page told me that Vivianna will be having another class soon so make sure to check her site often for more info!